(Newser)
–
For many unemployed Americans, a new trend is keeping the prospect of a new job out of reach: detailed credit checks of prospective employees. Once used mostly for government positions, cheap credit checks are now routine at private employers seeking to cull huge applicant pools. Businesses say they're just being responsible, but job counselors are nervous that the unemployed are being caught in a Catch-22.

One HR director told the New York Times she ran checks to discover "a history of bad decision-making." Yet a few states have introduced restrictions on credit checks, and credit counselors and workers' advocates are nervous about a widening trap for the unemployed. "How do you get out from under it?" said one professor. "You can’t re-establish your credit if you can’t get a job, and you can’t get a job if you’ve got bad credit."

I have to disagree, OG. That sacred institution marriage? Well, when people end that sacred institution, it ends up damaging their credit due to the dispute over monetary matters. When I first graduated from high school, I was a property manager and more often than not, divorced people who were seeking apartments had their credit marred during a divorce. I see no problem with it if a job requires managing money, corporate accounts, financial services, etc., but a call center representative can take care of a customer despite not taking care of his or her credit. People have also lost their credit due to major illness striking and then having to fight a GODDAMN insurance company over what is covered. It's not about fairness; it's about ethics and it is unethical to do this over jobs that do not require handling finances.

oldgoat

Aug 8, 2009 7:46 AM CDT

Too bad but using credit checks does give a company a reference to judge on how you not only manage money, but your affairs. If you can't manage them and they have other candidates that have then it helps make the decision easier to make. Making a mistake early in life only means that you have to start with a lower job and work to show that you do have your act together. It is no different than the people that have gotten laid off that are seniors, pre existing conditions and sometimes even having too much education have a hard time getting a job. Nobody ever said that getting a job was fair.

Netstorm2k10

Aug 7, 2009 12:03 PM CDT

I guess if you make a mistake in your youth, you might as well fucking kill yourself, because you're never going to be allowed to better yourself.